The Keep:Dealing with Variable Goals
This page compiles tricks for using the HabitRPG system with schedule irregularities, such as: Tasks that need to be done a certain number of times per week, but not on specific days Tasks that repeat monthly, seasonally, or on some other schedule Postponing or skipping sets of tasks (e.g., due to changes in health or work shifts). Seasonal/Context challenges Jane Doe has winter-only tasks (heat up car before work), and summer-only tasks (clean pool). John Smith goes to university. During trips home, his college tasks don't apply. At school, his home tasks don't apply. Doe and Smith use the the approach in The Keep:Monthlies in HabitRPG. Doe has a Winter and Summer challenge in her household party. She also has a biweekly Housework challenge with biweekly household tasks. Smith has School and Home challenges in his private guild named *The Scholar's Scrollbag*, when he leaves one place, he quits the challenge with the "remove task" option and joins the other challenge. Sometimes-Due Dailies Rowena Roe wants to face a penalty if she doesn't take out the trash when it's full, or shovel the sidewalk when it snows. At first making a daily for "shovel sidewalk" or "empty trash" doesn't seem right, because they don't need to be done every day—and she can't predict when they will be needed. Roe words her dailies so there's always something to complete. Her trash daily reads "Check trash, empty if full" to ensure that when the trash *is* full, she'll notice it and know she has to empty it. She has the daily "ensure there's no snow on sidewalk," which is very easy to complete on days when it doesn't snow! These easy checks help make up for the extra work she has to do on days when it does snow. She also uses a positive Habit named "Blizzard!" to reward herself on days when shoveling takes much more work than usual. Flexible Repeats Dovetail Dailies Grace Goe has tasks that are due a few times a week which can dovetail neatly. Goe has a daily named, "Clean Bunk". If she's at home, she cleans her bedroom, if at university, she cleans her dorm room. She has a daily named, "Walk/Weights" with a note to lift weights M,W,F and walk T,T,S. It would be greyed out on Sunday. (It would also be possible to do this with two scheduled dailies, but using one is simpler) Moving Due Days Winston Woe has tasks that need to be done a few times a week, but not on specific days. At the start of each week, Woe sets Eat Purple Carrots thrice weekly to due M, W, F. On Monday, he didn't eat purple carrots, so he moved it to T, W, F before the day's end. Tuesday he didn't eat them either, so it was moved to due W, T, F. Wednesday he ate none, so he made it due T, F, S. Thursday he knew he was out of days, he'd have to eat the carrots or suffer the penalty. Woe marks Reconcile Bank Accounts as due Monday, his Pay Day. It helps him not to miss it, even though it doesn't have to be done that specific day. Woe schedules his Check Post Office Box Weekly for Saturday. He marks it Easy, even though it's more Medium difficulty. He checks it off Saturday if he went once this week. He may also check it off the day he went, e.g. Tuesday. Woe vaccumed his carpet on Friday. Friday he checks off Vacuum Carpet Every 6th Day and adds "last done Fri" to the Notes field. He sets the due date to Thursday. Exemptions Merlin Moe has frequent schedule interruptions that are out of his control. He's commited to a daily exercise regimen, but doesn't want to be penalized as severely if he couldn't exercise because he was traveling or helping his neighbor recapture her escaped cows for a few hours. Moe creates a daily with a checklist which is due every day. He does not check off the daily, but does check the list off if he was running around chasing cows, but not following his exercise regimen. He also checks the list off if he has the flu and not exercising is reasonable. The completed checklist offsets the penalty. Moe loses the streak if he does not actually exercise and complete the daily. The daily will also redden slightly when it is not done, so the penalty for missing it when he next can is higher. The bonus for doing it is also higher. Dailies as Habits: User-Enforced Penalties Percival Poe has extreme variations in his health. Certain dailies apply (medicines, health tasks) always. He needs a way to avoid penalties if he's too sick at night to rest in the inn, and have dailies reset so he's can track his tasks. Poe's daily list includes only tasks that apply when he's in poor health. Some dailies are grey, even though they are due, just so that he won't die if he's too sick to login in for a couple of days. He uses markdown to call attention to these grey-but-doable tasks: `Meal 5` shows up in red letters on a pink background. Poe's habit list includes items that would otherwise be dailies. He has a +- 20m Project X habit. At the end of the night, he logs a - if he was well enough but did no work on Project X. He has similar habits for other kinds of projects and household chores. He periodically updates the lists depending on general health trends, sometimes swapping an item from a habit to a daily or vice versa. Rewards Faramir Foe also uses HabitRPG to help with his health tasks. He needs to stay out of the Inn as much as possible to track his goals, but needs some sort of reprieve from time to time to compensate for the poor health. Foe has custom rewards which allow him to buy a completion for a daily which is not actually done. Totally skipping a daily is more expensive than marking off a daily which was replaced by an unexpected to-do. Foe also happens to be a Rogue with high Perception, and saves his Mana to cast a spell that neutralizes most of the damage on sick days as if he were resting in the Inn. This still allows dailies to reset normally. Mix and Match Hermoine Hoe has a four-day work week with weekends off and rotating weekday off. Norma Noe has a constantly changing shift. Hoe uses habits for repeating items that aren't always due, and some grey items, as well as to-dos for infrequently repeating tasks. Noe uses a mix of the other methods.